STAR TREK 3 May Be Saved As Orci Exits

I don't know what God needs with a starship, but if it's to take Bob Orci off directing duties on Star Trek 3 he can have mine.

According to Deadline Orci has left the film, at least as director. The movie, coming out in Trek's 50th anniversary year, is going to be a big one for the franchise, which got a boost from the JJ Abrams rebootquel but never quite warped into the upper echelons of the big money billion dollar global gross club. This could be the series' last chance to move from the middle of the pack to the front, and having a director who never directed anything wasn't exactly the best way to accomplish that.

I had made my peace with Orci directing, and now I'm standing here filled with so much hope. The question is whether or not the work that has been done until now will stay; my sources tell me that the script Orci was working on saw the Enterprise, the Vulcans and a new alien race competing to get a time travel device. The Vulcans want to go back and stop the destruction of their planet, and the time travel schtick is what would allow Chris Pine and William Shatner to share the screen. Is that still going to be the plot of the movie - a MacGuffin that could wipe out the previous two films?

[UPDATE: I've been in touch with some folks and it seems like the script was one of the problem factors. Paramount shut the production down last month, sending home all the design people while they battled over the direction of the screenplay. I imagine all this stuff is gone now]

Deadline names Edgar Wright as being on the shortlist of possible directors - that's pretty exciting. I know Joe Cornish came really close, but Orci made himself an impossible obstacle in meetings because he wanted to direct himself. And now look how that turned out - we could be well on our way to a Joe Cornish Trek film instead of everybody having to scramble a year and a half out from release.

Whoever takes over - godspeed. Let us boldly go with you.

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